HELP!! dog drama!!

Erika - posted on 01/24/2012
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heres the story short version.

we have 2 male dogs, not neutered. our one male we just recently found out he was a male because he was a later bloomer i guess. anywho, our one pup , we have had him since he was a puppy in the summer and he is now 9 months old, our other one is a pure bred american bulldog who is about 20 months old. lately bulldog has been extrememly aggressive and dominant over our other pup and its relly starting to affect how i feel about them... its uisually only when my husband is not here tho which scares me more!! my husband wont neuter them tho because he has his own feelings and opinions on the matter but he also wont give them away.. i dont know what to do!! i have 2 small children and i dont want to risk anything happening to them! or me!! but i worry that if we dont do something wel learn the hard way.. i also dont want to get rid of our puppy.. he was here first and hes my baby but husband would rather keep bulldog.. im stuck in a jam and i need advice! if we were to neauter one would it help? would it make our bulldog calm down a bit even if we neauter the other??

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Jane - posted on 01/24/2012

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Yes, neutering either or both will help. American Bulldogs (I live with four of them) tend to want to be the head of the pack. If they think another dog is challenging them they will threaten the other dog, and may attack it. You need to stop it long before the attack stage starts or the dogs will never coexist peacefully.

This is complicated by the fact that your AmBull at 20 months is just reaching adult levels of hormones, and your puppy is just starting to be outwardly male. Thus, you have a teenager and a middle schooler and now is the time to put a stop to bad behavior.

The good news is that AmBulls typically love people but the bad news is that sometimes they are dog aggressive or aggressive about food or things they consider to be theirs. Their size means they can inflict injury without meaning to. It is especially bad if all the dogs are the same sex, and if no one is neutered.

You need to get at least the AmBull into obedience training and you need to do it now. Ideally, both you and your husband, both dogs, and the kids should all participate in training, so everyone understands the commands and who is in charge. But if that isn't possible you need to do it yourself so the dog starts to understand that you out-rank him and so he learns to do what you ask. AmBulls tend to be large dogs and they are strong, so it is very important that your dog learn to be a good canine citizen and that everyone in the house learn how to communicate with the dogs.

Never, ever leave the kids or the puppy alone with the AmBull! And actually, never leave any dog alone with children. Even a small dog such as a Chuhuahua can severely injure a small child. Always make sure that either you or your husband supervises any combination of dogs and children.

Also, you need to feed the dogs in separate places. You might even invest in a couple of crates for feeding time and for when someone isn't supervising the dogs, such as when no one is home or you all are asleep. That way each dog has his own space where he can feel safe.

If you want more information about American Bulldogs, you might visit the Facebook page for Texas American Bulldog Rescue (I foster dogs for them, most of whom need to be rescued because no one ever trained them) or you might seek out American Bulldog Rescue on the web. There are very knowledgeable folks in those groups. They can also help you learn how to safely re-home one or the other dog in case it turns out that you cannot get the two dogs to get along.

Good luck! I love bulldogs of all sorts, but they are not an easy breed. They are hard-headed but they do love their people.

Neutering both will help some. As will training so they respect you as the leader of the group. You might be actually making it worse between the two dogs I can tell in your question you favor one dog over the other which is natural your going to bond better with one sometimes but when you've got more than one they form their own hierarchy and you need to respect that. I had the same problem when I had two I naturally was more fond of my Samoyed he came first and he was more playful but he was the beta dog and I was treating him as alpha. So my other dog had to keep reestablish her dominance over him causing them to fight. Once I took them to a trainer and realized that they had an order and respected it they stopped fighting. I said hello to the alpha first, I feed the alpha first, I let the alpha out the door first, etc. After I did that both my dogs became so much happier.

You and your kids should feel safe. Neutering may make a little difference in the dogs. Your husband needs to listen to your concerns it's too late once something happens. I'd say it would be better to give the dog away then to have something happen to your kids and end up having to put it down. I'd suggest to try and get it neutered see if that changes anything if he really does want to keep the dog. If you still don't feel safe stick to your guns. Trust your instincts.